The Softness of the Christmas Season

Christmascame softly this year. I've been sick with a bad case of pink eye and finally had to give up on all the preparations before the big day. When Christmas morning arrived, SIE came down to the basement where I'd spent the night, and together with kaleidoscope girl and Hapapapa we went up to see the most amazing sight. Santa really had eaten all his cookies, drunk his milk, and given the carrot to the reindeer. It's the first time in as long as I can remember that I didn't get to Christmas Mass. My eyes felt really bad, though, and I think when your eyes or hearing are affected, the rest of your body feels bowed down and crummy. Driving back to LaCenter on the 26th, the roads were wet and rain poured most of the way. There's one spot between LaCenter and the farm that is a curvy stretch of road. One side of the road goes up and the other side of the road drops down, and it's covered on both sides with sheltering trees. This section of road is like a tunnel. The farms were green and the road clear when I went into this "tunnel". When I came out the other side, everything was covered in snow! You drive this section of road, concentrating on the curves and not really realizing that you're driving up an incline. When they tell the weather during news casts they tell it by feet above sea level. So they'll say something like, "Rain in the valley; snow above 4000 ft." My farm, I'm told, is at 1000 ft. It must be La Center is lower! I still felt sick, but Blue and I went for a walk. We went deep into the woods along the main path. There was only one set of footprints. They looked like they were from a big dog. I kept wondering if they could be the coyote we used to see. We haven't seen him since last New Year's Day. So maybe he's going to visit us again this New Years? The snow was wet and I heard on the reports that the rain would melt it all by morning. Waking up today, we beheld a beautiful white morning. Putting my clothes on over my pajamas, we went out to see the world. Snow was falling all around us and kept falling all day. A couple branches snapped from the firs sounding like gun fire. Glad we weren't under them! The snow on the greenhouses slipped down from the roofs sounding like mini avalanches. With snow on the ground you can see deeper into the woods, but nothing was stirring. All the birds in the area were at our feeders. Blue tumbled in the snow certain she would find some critter under each snow-laden twig. Brownie and Molly ran across the field to play. Blue was so-o-o-o wet when we came in!